大慧普覺禪師語錄 19

English (machine translation) 19

Language: English

19.1

Presented by his heir, the Abbot of Nengren Chan Monastery on Mount Jing, the subject monk Yunwen, Chan Master Huiri

19.2

Instruction to Layman Qingjing (Supervisor Li Xianchen)

The Buddha said: "If someone wishes to know the realm of the Buddha, they should purify their intention to be like empty space, leave far behind delusive thoughts and all grasping, and make the mind unhindered wherever it turns." The Buddha's realm is not an external realm that possesses form; the Buddha is indeed the realm of self-realized noble wisdom. If you definitely wish to know this realm, it is not attained through artificial ornamentation and cultivation-verification: you must purify from the basis of intention the contamination of adventitious defilements from beginningless time, making it broad and vast like empty space, and leave far behind all grasping in the mental consciousness, so that false and unreal delusive thoughts are also like empty space; then, wherever this effortless, wondrous mind turns, it will naturally be without stagnation or hindrance.

19.4

The Buddha also said: "One should not speak of the Tathāgata in terms of a single phenomenon, a single event, a single body, a single land, or a single sentient being; one should see the Tathāgata everywhere throughout all places." "Buddha" has the meaning of awakening, which means being constantly and ubiquitously awakened in all places. So-called ubiquitous seeing means seeing the natural, intrinsically authentic Buddha of one's own fundamental source and own-nature, because there is not a single time, a single place, a single phenomenon, a single event, a single body, a single land, or a single realm of sentient beings throughout which it is not present everywhere. Sentient beings are deluded about this and revolve through the three realms, undergoing all kinds of suffering; the buddhas awaken to this and transcend all seas of existence, experiencing extraordinary, wondrous bliss. Yet suffering and bliss both lack substantial entity; there is only the difference between delusion and awakening, and thus suffering and bliss take different paths. Therefore Wangshun says: "When the dharmakāya flows and turns through the five paths, it is called sentient beings; when sentient beings appear, the dharmakāya does not appear—this is it." To shoulder this great matter requires having a resolute will; if you are half-believing and half-doubting, you will have no engagement with it at all. An ancient worthy said: "Studying the Way is like drilling for fire: when smoke appears, do not stop; only when sparks show and you return home have you reached the end." If you wish to know the place where you reach the end, it is where one's own realm and other realms are entirely as one.

19.5

Having taken up the study of this Way, in all twenty-four hours of the day, wherever you encounter things and respond to conditions, you must not let evil thoughts continue in succession. If through lack of vigilance an evil thought arises, you must quickly pull yourself together and jerk its head back around. If you consistently follow along after it in unbroken succession, not only will it obstruct the Way, but you will also be called someone devoid of wisdom. Formerly, Guishan asked Lanan: "In all twenty-four hours of the day, what do you attend to?" An said: "I herd an ox." Guishan said: "How do you herd it?" An said: "As soon as it enters the grass, I grab it by the muzzle and drag it back." Guishan said: "You are truly herding an ox!" A practitioner of the Way subduing evil thoughts should be like Lanan herding the ox; then after a long time it will naturally become pure and ripe.

19.6

"Do not draw another's bow, do not ride another's horse, do not pry into another's affairs." Although these are common sayings, they can also serve as provisions for entering the Way. Simply examine yourself constantly from morning till dusk: what matters have there been that benefit others and benefit yourself? If you feel even slightly deficient or lopsided, you must immediately alert yourself and not neglect it.

19.7

Formerly, Chan Master Daolin lived up in a tall pine tree on Mount Qinwang; the people of the time called him the Bird's Nest Monk. When Vice Minister Bai Juyi governed Qiantang, he specially entered the mountain to pay him a visit and said: "The Chan Master's seat is very dangerous!" The Master said: "What danger is there for this old monk? The Vice Minister's danger is far worse." Bai said: "My disciple's post governs the rivers and mountains; what danger could there be?" The Master said: "Firewood and flame interacting, your conscious nature never resting—how could that not be dangerous?" He then asked: "What is the great meaning of the Buddhadharma?" The Master said: "Do no evil, practice all good." Bai said: "Even a three-year-old child knows how to say that." The Master said: "Although a three-year-old child can say it, an eighty-year-old elder cannot practice it." Bai then made obeisance and departed. Now, if you wish to conserve mental effort, do not concern yourself with whether a three-year-old child can say it or not, or whether an eighty-year-old elder can practice it or not; simply do no evil, and this saying is understood. Whether you believe it or not, please reflect on it.

19.8

Worldly people who currently enact ignorance and correct themselves to do good, even if the good is not yet fully attained, are they not far better than those shameless and unprincipled people who rely on a pretext of good to commit evil? In the teachings this is called: when the causal ground is not true, the fruit incurs twists and turns. If you can have a straightforward mind and straightforward practice, directly grasping unexcelled bodhi, this can be called the conduct of a true great hero. Matters from kalpas as numerous as dust motes are found only in the present moment; if you understand right now, the matters from kalpas as numerous as dust motes instantly collapse like tiles and melt like ice. If you do not understand right now, even after passing through kalpas as numerous as dust motes it will still be just like this. Such a dharma has been eternally so throughout all antiquity, never shifting in the slightest bit.

19.9

This matter permits clever and sharp fellows to shoulder it, yet if one employs cleverness and sharpness, one will have no share in shouldering it. Although the clever and sharp find it easy to enter, it is difficult for them to maintain and protect, because their place of entry is not very deep and their strength is weak. As soon as the clever and sharp hear a good spiritual friend speak of this matter, their eyes dart about, and they have already apprehended and interpreted it with their mental consciousness. Those like this create their own obstacles; for eternal kalpas they will never have a moment of awakening. Calamity caused by external ghosts can still be cured, but this is a domestic relative causing trouble—it cannot be warded off with prayers. Yongjia said: "Damaging the wealth of Dharma and extinguishing merit is all due to this mental consciousness." This is what it means.

19.10

Literati read widely among various books originally to nourish and benefit their nature and discernment, yet instead they retain the words of the ancients, storing them in their breasts to make a career and supply topics for conversation. They fail completely to understand the sage's intention in establishing the teachings, which is like counting others' treasures all day long without having half a coin of one's own. Reading Buddhist teachings is also like this: you must see the moon and forget the finger, and not produce understanding based on words. An ancient worthy said: "The Buddha spoke all dharmas to save all minds; I have no mind at all, so of what use are all dharmas?" If scholars with resolve can read books and study teachings like this, only then do they embody a small part of the sage's intention.

19.11

Formerly, Commandant Li Wenhe studied under Chan Master Shimen Cizhao Cong and awakened to the Linji lineage's principle. He had a verse: "To study the Way you must be an iron fellow; / once you set your hand to it, make up your mind at once: / directly grasp unexcelled bodhi, / and pay no heed to any right and wrong." How wondrous are these words! They can serve as a catalyst to trigger the seeds of light.

19.12

Worldly affairs of dusty toil are like interlocking chains, continuing without end. Wherever you can spare effort, spare it. Because you have been habituated to them from beginningless time, if you do not vigorously contend against them, with the passage of days and months you will unknowingly sink in too deep, and on the thirtieth day of the twelfth month you will find your hands and feet entirely helpless. If you want not to be confused and misguided when facing the end of life, then from right now in your daily activities do not allow yourself to be confused and misguided. If you are confused and misguided in your daily activities right now, wanting not to be confused and misguided when facing the end of life is impossible.

19.13

An ancient worthy said: "To seek an ox, one must follow the tracks; / to study the Way, seek no-mind. / Where the tracks are, the ox remains; / with no-mind, the Way is easy to find." What is called "no-mind" is not being stubbornly insensate like earth, wood, tile, or stone; it means that when touching circumstances and encountering conditions, the mind is settled and unmoving, does not grasp at any dharma, is completely unhindered and unobstructed in all places, is without defilement, yet does not abide in the place of non-defilement either; viewing the body and viewing the mind as like a dream and like an illusion, yet not abiding in the realm of dreams, illusions, or voidness. Only when arriving at such a realm can it truly be called genuine no-mind, and it is not a no-mind merely spoken of by mouth. If you have not attained genuine no-mind and merely rely on what is spoken, how does that differ from the heterodox Chan of silent illumination?

19.14

The Buddha is medicine for sentient beings; when sentient beings' illness is cured, the medicine is also of no use. If the illness departs but the medicine remains, and you can enter the realm of buddhas but cannot enter the realm of māras, that illness is equal to the uncured illness of sentient beings. When the illness is healed and the medicine removed, sweeping away both buddhas and māras, only then will you have a small measure of accord with this great matter.

19.15

Guizong cutting the snake and Nanquan cutting the cat are mostly called by word-reciting sorts wondrous functions responsive to the occasion, or the great function appearing without abiding by rules and regulations. Little do they know that it is not that kind of principle at all. If you possess the eye that transcends directions, as soon as it is brought up you know where it lands; if the great Dharma is not clear, when will cracking tiles and drilling tortoise shells ever end?

19.16

If you wish to empty the ten thousand dharmas, first purify your own mind. When your own mind is pure, all conditions cease; once all conditions have ceased, substance and function are both suchness. Substance is the pure fundamental source of your own mind; function is the wondrous function of your own mind's transformations. Entering the pure or entering the defiled, there is no attachment, like a great ocean without wind, like the vast void when clouds disperse. Only when reaching such a ground can you be called a student of the Buddha; if you have not yet attained this, please pull yourself together quickly.

19.17

Recently in the monasteries, they take the ancient masters' extraordinary words and marvelous sayings in question and answer to be differentiated conditions and bewitch students with them, completely failing to base themselves on the reality. The buddhas preach the Dharma only fearing that people will not understand; even if there are hidden or covered teachings, they draw upon analogies alongside to cause sentient beings to awaken and enter, and that is all. For instance, a monk asked Mazu: "What is the Buddha?" Mazu said: "Mind itself is Buddha." When awakening and entering here, what differentiation is there? If you do not awaken here, this very "mind itself is Buddha" becomes a differentiated condition.

19.18

Whenever you read the sūtras and teachings or the ancient worthies' conditions for entering the Way, when your mind is not yet clear, and you feel confused, stifled, and without flavor, just like chewing on an iron stake, that is precisely the time to apply effort. Above all, you must not give up: that is where mental consciousness does not operate, where thoughts cannot reach, where distinctions are severed, and where rational pathways are extinguished. Where you can ordinarily speak of principles and conduct discrimination is entirely the business of sensory consciousness. All too often people mistake a thief for their son—you cannot fail to know this.

19.19

There is a sort of person who reads sūtras, recites the Buddha's name, and repents in the morning, yet in the evening gives free rein to verbal karma and curses people, and the next day bows to the Buddha and repents as before; year in and year out, they take this as their daily practice—this is the height of foolishness. They completely fail to understand that the Sanskrit term kṣama means repenting mistakes here, which refers to cutting off the mind of continuation: once cut off, it is never continued again; once repented, it is never committed again. This is our Buddha's meaning of repentance, and students of the Way cannot fail to understand it.

19.20

A student of the Way must always keep the mind and mental consciousness quiet and still in all twenty-four hours of the day; when there is nothing to do, one must also sit quietly, causing the mind not to be negligent and the body not to waver. Practicing this for a long time until it becomes familiar, body and mind will naturally be tranquil, and you will have a share in orienting toward the Way. The pāramitā of quietude calms the scattered, distracted, and deluded consciousness of sentient beings, that is all. If you cling to the place of quietude as the ultimate, you will be caught and held by the heterodox Chan of silent illumination.

19.21

Venerable Zhaozhou said: "In all twenty-four hours of the day, except for the two times when I eat gruel and rice, which are uses of mind with distraction, in all other times I have no place where I use my mind with distraction." This was this old venerable's actual practice and conduct; you must not understand it as Buddhadharma or the Chan Way.

19.22

Good and evil both arise from your own mind. Tell me: apart from lifting your feet, taking steps, deliberating, and discriminating, what do you call your own mind? And from where does your own mind arise? If you recognize the place where your own mind arises, your boundless karmic obstacles will be purified all at once, and all kinds of extraordinary benefits will arrive of themselves without being sought.

19.23

"Where does birth come from? Where does death go? One who knows their place of coming and going is first worthy of being called a student of the Buddha." Who is it that knows birth and death? Who is it again that undergoes birth and death? Who is it again that does not know their place of coming and going? Who is it again that suddenly comes to know their place of coming and going? While looking into this phrase, blinking one's eyes unable to comprehend it, the guts tossing up and down, as though a ball of fire were abruptly dumped into one's chest—who is that again? If you wish to recognize it, just recognize it right where you cannot comprehend. If you manage to recognize it, only then will you know that birth and death definitely have nothing to do with you.

19.24

A student of the Way need only take the effort spent daily in scrutinizing others and constantly scrutinize themselves; then the work of the Way cannot fail to be accomplished. Whether in joy or anger, in quiet or bustle, every moment is a time for self-scrutiny.

19.25

With Zhaozhou's phrase, "A dog has no buddha-nature," you must also bring it to mind and scrutinize it amidst joy, anger, quiet, and bustle. Above all, you must not use the mind to wait for awakening. If you use the mind to wait for awakening, you are telling yourself, "Right now I am deluded," and clinging to delusion while waiting for awakening; even after passing through dust-like kalpas, you still will not be able to attain awakening. Just when raising the huatou, summon up your spirits a bit and see: what kind of principle is this?

19.26

Zhaozhou said: "The single word 'Buddha'—I do not like to hear it." If he did not even like to hear the word "Buddha," he surely had no leisure time to meddle in idle affairs, rushing about day after day scrutinizing others.

19.27

When the ancients brought forth and upheld this matter, whether approaching it through principle or approaching it through phenomena, whether relying on the occasion or bringing it forth toward the transcendental, none had a fixed standard. It is just as the scriptural teachings say: "The Buddha expounds the Dharma with a single voice, and sentient beings each attain understanding according to their kind."

19.28

Friend of the Way Xianchen, living amidst wealth and nobility, is not deluded by wealth and nobility; knowing that there is this one great matter of causal conditions, he is determined to penetrate and be free from birth and death. When I was condemned and exiled to Hengyang, he and I were together from beginning to end for four years, yet it seemed like just a single day. In attending to his official duties and administration, he was never careless or neglectful, handling all matters with forbearance, honest and circumspect, steady and generous, never speaking of others' faults. This is truly the practice practiced by buddhas and bodhisattvas. Because he presented this scroll to request instruction, I have written down these twenty-six sections for him. It is also because his genuine sincerity toward the Way is extremely vigorous that I wish to encourage and help him fulfill it, in the hope that he will apply his effort in accordance with this and in the future illuminate the great matter, acting like Yang Danian, Zhang Wujin, and other venerable elders as an inner and outer protector-bodhisattva for our lineage; then my words will not have been uttered in vain.

19.29

Instruction to Layman Dongfeng (Vice Prefect Chen Cizhong)

19.30

If you wish to study this Way, you must comprehend it directly beneath your own feet. The moment you are involved with even a fine hair of views and understanding, you miss the news beneath your feet. Once the news beneath your feet is penetrated, all kinds of views and understanding are nothing other than the affairs beneath your feet. Therefore the Patriarch said: "Right when speaking of views and understanding, views and understanding are just the mind; present mind is just views and understanding, views and understanding are just the present." If right now, without exceeding a single thought, you abruptly forget views and understanding beneath your feet, then you will walk hand in hand with the Patriarchs. If you have not yet been able to do so, by all means avoid fixing upon views and understanding. When scholar-officials study the Way, those of sharp faculties miss it, and those of dull faculties find it difficult to enter. Finding it difficult to enter, they naturally give rise to retreat and discouragement; missing it, they give rise to slander without doubt. If you want to hit the mark, just shift that which missed it to the place that is difficult to enter, and shift that which is difficult to enter to the place that missed it; naturally, all will be tranquil and at peace, and you will not make interpretations of "difficult to enter" or "missing it." Having attained this, it is fitting right here to lay down your whole body. When laying it down, you must also not make an understanding of laying it down. As an ancient worthy said: "Footloose and idle, always like an utter fool, yet in another's house there will naturally be a person of penetration to appreciate him." Moreover, Qingliang said: "Give free rein to its going and staying, quietly mirror and perceive its source and flow; to speak of realization cannot be demonstrated to others, to discuss principle cannot be understood without realization." Yet people nowadays, as soon as they hear such words, assume there really is such a thing, and thereupon say, "I have realized it, I have awakened to it, but I cannot bring it out to show to people." They exclusively speak lofty Chan, crisscrossing in every direction, talking nonsense and uttering falsehoods, deceiving gods and terrifying ghosts, supposing that the affair under the Patriarchs' gate is merely like this. Little do they know that genuine realization and genuine awakening—only people of genuine realization and genuine awakening, without relying on words and expressions, naturally tally in silence with one another. In tallying with one another, they also do not intentionally attempt to harmonize; it is like water entering water, or gold trading for gold, pointing to one and understanding three, weighing the occasion by grains and drachms. Having reached this stage, only then can one speak of transcending the characteristic of speech, transcending the characteristic of words, and transcending the characteristic of mental conditioning. It is not forced; the Dharma is just so. In the monasteries of recent times, false teachings have sprung up on every side, blinding the eyes of sentient beings beyond count. If one does not use the gong'ans of the ancients to bring up, awaken, and prompt them, it is just like a blind person letting go of the staff in his hand—unable to take even a single step. They take the causal conditions of the ancient worthies' entry into the Way and divide them into categories, saying: "These few cases are the causal conditions of the eye of the Way; these few cases are the causal conditions of penetrating sound and form; these few cases are the causal conditions of forgetting emotional attachments." From the beginning, one by one according to order, they calculate, estimate, formulate replies, and deliberate. Even if there are those who recognize this sickness, they assume that the Buddhadharma and the Way of Chan do not lie in words and language, and so set everything aside, gulping down the ready-made gruel and rice, and sitting clumped together in the ghost cave beneath the Black Mountain, calling it "silent yet constantly shining," calling it "like a person who has died the great death," calling it "the affair before father and mother were born," calling it "the news before the empty kalpa," and calling it "the news on that side of Powerful Sound." Sitting on and on until their buttocks grow calluses, they do not dare make a move, calling it "the effort gradually maturing." Then they take many idle and rambling words, deliberate on them from the beginning as doctrinal principles, and transmit them through instruction, calling it "the lineage doctrine." Inside their chest it remains pitch-black as before; originally intending to eradicate self and other, self and other become even loftier; originally intending to extinguish ignorance, ignorance becomes even greater. Little do they know that in this matter, only genuine realization and genuine awakening can be the ultimate. The moment there is a word or half-phrase made into an interpretation of the extraordinary, the profound and wondrous, or the secret, something that can be transmitted and conferred, then it is not the true Dharma. The true Dharma has no transmission and no conferral; only I realize and you realize, eye meeting eye, transmitting mind with mind, causing the wisdom-life of the buddhas and patriarchs to continue without interruption; only afterward does one extend what is left over in oneself to serve as a model for beings. Therefore Bodhidharma said: "I originally came to this land / To transmit the Dharma and save deluded beings. / A single flower opens into five petals; / The fruit forms naturally." That is it. That which is called transmitting the Dharma is the mind-dharma; the mind-dharma has no form or dimension. What is transmitted is what was mentioned earlier: "I realize and you realize." If both parties have not realized it and seek realization outside the mind, then there are lineage doctrines, profound, wondrous, and extraordinary things that can be transmitted and conferred, whereupon there arises, "I understand, you do not understand," generating thoughts of disdain and increasing views of self; the Tathāgata calls them pitiable. In Miaoxi's Chan, there is no difference between difficult to practice and easy to practice; it only requires the practitioner of Chan, before the bowels move, to cut off the road of birth and death, directly having no doubt about the buddhas, no doubt about the patriarchs, no doubt about birth, and no doubt about death. The difference between difficult to practice and easy to practice lies in the person, not in the affair of Chan. Often clever and alert fellows mostly seek quick results, wanting something they can speak with their mouths and something they can rely on before them. Little do they know that for one who has attained this matter, it is like a live lion wheeling around, in the person's daily life during the twelve periods of the day. It is like quicksilver dropped on the ground: the large drops are large and round, the small drops are small and round, needing no arrangement, requiring no contrivance, naturally lively and dynamic, constantly revealed manifest before you. Right at such a time, one first tallies with what the Overnight Enlightened One said: "Not seeing a single phenomenon is the Tathāgata; only then can one be called the Perceiver of Sovereignty." If you have not yet been able to be like this, for the time being set this cleverness and speaking of principles to one side, and right where there is nothing to grasp and nothing of flavor, try to grope and chew on it. Groping back and forth, chewing back and forth, suddenly right in the tasteless place you bite your tongue, and in the ungraspable place you lose your nostrils; then you will know what Old Man Zhaozhou said: "Before leaving home I was used by bodhi; after leaving home I could use bodhi. Sometimes I pick up a blade of grass and use it as the sixteen-foot golden body; sometimes I take the sixteen-foot golden body and use it as a blade of grass. Establishing also rests with me; sweeping away also rests with me. Speaking of principles also rests with me; not speaking of principles also rests with me. I am the King of Dharma, sovereign in phenomena; if I speak, there are so many; if I do not speak, there are not so many." Having attained such sovereignty, wherever you go, how could you not be at ease? The Sanskrit term prajñā is translated here as wisdom; there has never been one who illuminated prajñā yet harbored greed, anger, and delusion; there has never been one who illuminated prajñā yet poisoned and harmed sentient beings. Those who do such things run counter to prajñā; how could they be said to possess wisdom? Miaoxi usually says to those within the gate: "The very moment you feel that in your daily life, in responding to conditions, you are saving effort, that is just where you are gaining strength; where you gain strength, infinite effort is saved; where effort is saved, infinite strength is gained." Often, having heard this said many times, it becomes like a person from Sizhou seeing the Great Sage. Little do they know that when Miaoxi speaks like this, it is precisely his lifelong walk of practice. Fearing that there are those who lack sufficient faith, he cannot help but repeatedly remind, awaken, and drag through the mud and water, simply because having once been a wanderer, he has a special sympathy for travelers.

19.31

Instruction to Layman Zhitong (Comptroller Huang Bocheng)

19.32

The sages from antiquity had no verbal transmission; they only spoke of transmitting mind with mind. Nowadays, people mostly rely on masterly inheritance and conceptual understanding, turning their backs on this mind, taking verbal transmission as the lineage doctrine. As teachers, their eyes are not straight, and the learners also lack determined resolve; in their haste to understand Chan, they only seek to keep their mouths from being empty, so they will have something to say. To wish for the mind-ground to open and penetrate, reaching the realm of ultimate peace and happiness—is that not difficult?

19.33

An ancient worthy said: "The phrase can eliminate the intention; the intention can eliminate the phrase. When intention and phrase run against each other, that is to be feared." He also said: "Within the intention, no phrase is retained; within the phrase, no intention is retained." As when Zhaoqing asked Luoshan: "Master Yantou said: 'So, so; not so, not so.' What was his meaning?" Luoshan thereupon called out, "Great Master!" Zhaoqing answered. Luoshan said: "Both bright and both dark." Zhaoqing then bowed and left. Three days later, he came again and asked: "What was the Venerable's meaning the other day?" Luoshan said: "I told you everything with all my heart." Zhaoqing said: "The Great Master is walking while holding a torch." Luoshan said: "If so, then ask according to what you doubt." Zhaoqing said: "What is 'both bright and both dark'?" Luoshan said: "Living together and also dying together." Zhaoqing bowed in thanks again and left. Later, another monk asked Luoshan: "What about when living together but not dying together?" Luoshan said: "Like an ox without horns." He also asked: "What about when living together and also dying together?" Luoshan said: "Like a tiger wearing horns." If you wish to understand the affairs from antiquity, you should constantly keep this causal condition in mind; however, you must not use the mind to bore into it, for boring into it is an error.

19.34

Do not take a fancy to the unusual words and wondrous phrases of the various quarters, the claims made by masters of lineages on their own, the teachings transmitted in secret rooms, and kinds of gong'ans of the ancients. When such miscellaneous poisons are gathered up in your storehouse consciousness, they cannot be taken out for kalpas and births. Not only will they be of no help at the shore of birth and death, but in daily life you will also be obstructed by them, so that your eye of the Way cannot become clearly penetrating. The ancients had no choice: seeing that you students had much differentiated intellectual understanding, turned your backs on the Way, and were bogged down in words and phrases, they used differentiated medicines to cure your differentiated diseases, causing the ground of your mind to be peaceful and joyous, reaching the realm of non-differentiation. Nowadays, on the contrary, people take differentiated words and phrases as extraordinary, clinging to the medicine as a disease—is this not lamentable?

19.35

An ancient worthy said: 'The Buddha is the medicine for sentient beings: when there is the disease of sentient beings, it is used; if the medicine is used when there is no disease of sentient beings, then the medicine in turn becomes a disease worse than having the disease.' What was said earlier—'Miscellaneous poisons must not be gathered up in the storehouse consciousness'—also refers to this.

19.36

The various frustrating matters amidst the defilements of daily life are the disease of sentient beings; a single thought turning back the light to reflect inward is the Buddha's medicine. If you can directly generate no discrimination regarding the Buddha and sentient beings, then the disease is cured and the medicine removed. Only then will you accord with Layman Pang's words: 'My daily affairs are no different, / only that I naturally harmonize with them. / In everything there is no taking or leaving; / everywhere there is no conflict or discord.'

19.37

In studying this Way, when one has not yet found an entry point, one feels that it is fraught with countless difficulties. Hearing a master bring it up and awaken one to it, one feels all the more that it is hard to understand. This is because the mind of seeking realization and craving rest has not been removed, and one is obstructed by this instead. The moment this mind rests, only then does one know it is neither difficult nor easy, nor is it something that a master can transmit.

19.38

To know one is deluded and not awaken is a great mistake; to cling to delusion and wait for awakening is an even greater mistake. Why is this? It is because through lack of awakening that one is deluded. Clinging to delusion and waiting for awakening is being unawakened within lack of awakening, deluded within delusion. If you decisively wish to break through these two layers of barriers, please let go of them at once. If you cannot let go, being deluded and awakened, when to the end of future kalpas will it ever come to rest?

19.39

For practitioners of the Way, in daily life emptying objects is easy, but emptying the mind is difficult. When objects are empty but the mind is not empty, the mind is overcome by objects. Simply empty the mind and objects will naturally become empty. If the mind is already empty, yet one further gives rise to a second thought wishing to empty its objects, then this mind has not yet become empty, and is again snatched away by objects. If this disease is not eliminated, there will be no way to escape birth and death. Have you not seen Layman Pang's verse presented to Mazu: 'Together from the ten directions we gather, / each studying non-action. / This is the arena for selecting buddhas; / with empty mind, we pass the examination and return home.' Since this mind is already empty, what thing outside the mind is there that can be emptied? Reflect on this.

19.40

Just attain the root; do not worry about the branches. Emptying this mind is the root. Once the root is attained, the various kinds of language, the various kinds of wisdom, the daily responses to things according to conditions, the upside-down chaos, joy or anger, good or bad, favorable or unfavorable—all are branches. If you can be self-aware at the point of according with conditions, then there is neither deficiency nor excess.

19.41

When someone entered their gate, the ancients would immediately strike and shout, fearing only that the student would not undertake it with urgency, let alone chattering on, speaking of phenomena and principle, speaking of the mysterious and wondrous, rolling about in the grass! In recent years, this Way has declined. Those who occupy the high seat and act as teachers merely take the gong'ans of the ancients, praising or disparaging them, or making secret-room transmissions, regarding these as the Chan Way; or they take remaining silent without words, as the matter before the empty kalpa on that other side of King of Awesome Sound, regarding it as the Chan Way; or they take raising and scrutinizing what the eye sees and the ear hears, regarding it as the Chan Way; or they take wild and reckless action, striking sparks and flashing lightning, understanding as soon as it is brought up, negating everything, regarding it as the Chan Way. Since these are all wrong, what then is the genuine place? If there were a genuine place, how would it differ from these? One who possesses the eye knows as soon as it is raised.

19.42

This Way is without limits, and the defilements of the world are also without limits; it depends only on what one directs oneself toward in daily life. Therefore the Avataṃsaka Sūtra says: 'Toward all worlds, the mind is like empty space, without any attachment. Universally observing the true mark of all dharmas, one gives rise to great vows to extinguish the suffering of sentient beings, never wearying of or abandoning the aspirations of the Great Vehicle, extinguishing all views, and cultivating the equal conduct and vows of the bodhisattvas.' What is called 'equal conduct and vows' is also this unlimited mind, unimpeded and unobstructed wherever it is directed.

19.43

In studying worldly matters, if you do not apply your mind thoroughly, the study will not succeed. In studying the supramundane Dharma, there is nowhere for you to apply your mind. The moment you intend to apply your mind to deduce and search, you are separated by thousands and tens of thousands of miles, having no connection at all. Even though it is like this, where there is no place to apply the mind, no place to grope, and no place to exert effort, that is precisely the place to exert effort. Do not, seeing it stated thus, branch out further and say: 'Since there is no place to apply the mind, no place to grope, and no place to exert effort, how then should I proceed?' If you adopt this view, you are even further disconnected.

19.44

Instruction to Layman Miaozheng (Court Assistant Nie)

19.45

Impermanence is swift, and birth and death is a great matter. In the realm of sentient beings, matters that accord with birth and death are like hemp and millet. When one batch is cleared away, another batch arrives. If you do not stick the two characters 'birth and death' onto the tip of your nose as an antidote, then only on the thirtieth day of the twelfth month, flustered and confused, like a crab dropped into boiling water, will you begin to know regret, and then it will be too late. If you want a direct cutoff, please cut it off right from this very moment.

19.46

In studying worldly dharmas, you must understand them clearly. In studying supramundane dharmas, you must completely fail to understand them; only then will you have a share in proceeding. Since you cannot understand them, how should you proceed? Just investigate it in this manner.

19.47

A buddha is a fellow who has finished his business within the realm of sentient beings; a sentient being is a fellow who has not finished his business within the realm of buddhas. If you wish to attain oneness, just let go of both buddha and sentient beings at once, and there will be neither finished nor unfinished. Therefore an ancient worthy said: 'Simply penetrate non-action upon phenomena; / seeing forms and hearing sounds, there is no need to be deaf.'

19.48

A monk asked Zhaozhou: 'Does the cypress tree also have buddha-nature or not?' Zhaozhou said: 'It has.' The monk said: 'When will it become a buddha?' Zhaozhou said: 'Wait until empty space falls to the ground.' The monk said: 'When will empty space fall to the ground?' Zhaozhou said: 'Wait until the cypress tree becomes a buddha.' In examining this huatou, you must not conceive that the cypress tree will not become a buddha, nor conceive that empty space will not fall to the ground. Ultimately, how is it? When empty space falls to the ground, the cypress tree becomes a buddha; when the cypress tree becomes a buddha, it is certain that empty space falls to the ground. Reflect on this.

19.49

The Buddha is a person of no business. Living in the world for forty-nine years, in accord with the capacities of sentient beings, he gave medicine in response to diseases, expedient and real, sudden and gradual, partial and full, biased and complete, expounding the entire Great Canon of teachings, which are all dharmas of no business. From beginningless time, sentient beings have been turned around by mind, intellect, and consciousness; while turning around, they are entirely unaware. Therefore, in the Prajñā assembly, the Buddha spoke of the empty mark of all dharmas, stating that the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind, and form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas, are all empty, having mere names and nothing more. Reaching the ultimate point, names are also empty, and emptiness also cannot be attained. If a person inherently possesses good roots and seed nature, he merely puts to death mind, intellect, and consciousness right at the point where nothing can be attained. Only then does he know that old Śākyamuni's statement: 'From the beginning at the Deer Park to the end at the Hiraṇyavatī River, between these two, I never spoke a single word,' is true speech.

19.50

Chan is not in a quiet place, not in a noisy place, not in the place of thinking and discriminating, and not in the place of daily response to conditions. Even though it is like this, above all you must not abandon quiet places, noisy places, places of daily response to conditions, and places of thinking and discriminating to investigate it. Suddenly your eyes will open, and it will all be matters of your own home.

19.51

When scholar-officials nowadays study the Way, most advance halfway and retreat halfway. When things do not go as they wish in worldly affairs, they urgently want to practice Chan; but when worldly affairs suddenly accord with their wishes, they immediately cease practicing, because they lack decisive faith. Chan is another name for prajñā; the Sanskrit word prajñā translates here as wisdom. If you lack decisive faith and also lack wisdom, wishing to transcend birth and death is impossible.

19.52

Dharma Words of Chan Master Dahui Pujue, Fascicle Nineteen

Linked texts (1)

大慧普覺禪師語錄 — Classical Chinese